An easy recipe for cucumber and red onion salad with homemade lemon dill vinaigrette that’s light and refreshing, crisp and tangy, plus it’s addictively good! Wow….this simple vegan salad checks all the boxes for me and I can make it, including the lemon dill dressing in under 10 minutes!
Ingredient Notes
Use my 5-minute lemon dill dressing recipe that pairs beautifully with a simple salad of thinly sliced cucumbers and onions. It uses fresh lemon and fresh dill along with capers, olive oil, garlic and ground pepper for a sweet and tangy vinaigrette that’s perfect in this refreshing salad.
I used my inexpensive hand held mandoline to quickly slice the cucumber and red onion. You can also do this by hand with a knife.
Then, I sprinkled a pinch of salt and a handful of chopped fresh dill fronds over the thinly sliced vegetables, tossed and let them sit in the fridge to sweat while I made the dressing.
Letting the cucumber slices sit with salt, brings out some of their water content. You can omit the salt if you’re on a low sodium diet, and some of the liquid will still be released. I like to make the lemon vinaigrette thick on purpose, knowing it will absorb some of the extra liquid so this salad isn’t too watery. However….DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. It’s crucial to allow some of the water in the cucumber to release, and then discard it so your salad won’t be soggy.
While the cucumbers sit, make the vinaigrette. Blend lemon zest and juice, olive oil, capers, caper brine, garlic, dates and black pepper together with an immersion blender until smooth, emulsified and creamy. Add in the dill fronds and pulse until just combined.
Drain any watery liquid that’s accumulated in the bowl of sliced vegetables. Then pour some of the lemon dill vinaigrette over the cucumbers and onions.
Toss well. Taste. Sprinkle on more dill or black pepper if desired, extra vinaigrette or an extra squirt of lemon juice as desired, and serve.
Debra’s Pro Tips
- Give yourself enough time to let the sliced cucumbers and red onion to “sweat” a bit of their moisture out. It will make your salad less watery. If you skip this step, your salad may be a bit watery.
- If you don’t have a mandoline slicer, do your best to slice the cucumber and onion as thin as possible.
- This cucumber salad is best served the same day it is made. You can prep the sliced cukes and onion as much as a day before and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Pour off any collected liquid before tossing with the vinaigrette.
- The dressing will stay good in the fridge for a week, so you can make that ahead and store in an airtight container in the fridge until ready to toss with the sliced vegetables.
- Taking it to a potluck? Bring the dressing in a separate container and toss it there!
📖 Recipe
Easy Cucumber Salad with Lemon Dill Vinaigrette
Equipment
Ingredients
Salad
- 1 lb persian cucumbers
- ½ medium red onion
Lemon Dill Vinaigrette
- 1 lemon zested and juiced
- 2 medjool dates
- 1 tablespoon capers
- 2 teaspoon caper brine
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 clove garlic finely grated
- ⅛ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 bunch fresh dill
Instructions
- Separate the fronds from the woody stems of the dill. Discard the stems.
- Use a mandoline or sharp knife to thinly slice cucumber and red onion. Place in a bowl, sprinkle with a pinch of salt and a handful of dill fronds. Toss well and set aside to sweat while you prepare the vinaigrette.
- Place lemon zest and juice, dates, capers and brine, olive oil, grated garlic and black pepper into the cup of a personal blender or tall container and use an immersion blender to blend. Continue to process until smooth and creamy. Add the remaining dill fronds and pulse a couple of times until dill is chopped and incorporated into the vinaigrette.
- After 15 minutes (or longer if you have the time), drain the accumulated liquid from the bottom of the bowl and pour half the lemon vinaigrette onto the cucumber mixture and mix well. Taste. Add more dressing or just another squeeze of lemon as desired.
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Salad is best served the same day. To make ahead, store the sliced vegetables and the salad separately, draining any cucumber water before tossing with the vinaigrette and then serving cold or at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Note
The nutrition calculations were done using online tools. To obtain the most accurate representation of the nutritional information in any given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients you used. You are ultimately responsible for ensuring that any nutritional information is accurate, complete and useful.
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